International

The scandal that broke out in the American press over the alleged cases of the use of force against American diplomats in Moscow is part of a campaign to create an enemy image of Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. "This is a targeted information campaign, which has different aims and objectives: to globally form an image of the enemy in all directions, to show that it is not the Western aggression that is aimed against Russia, but vice versa, and to foment the conflict using the example of alleged attacks on US diplomats", she said. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Moscow knows that the United States currently considers a bill on tightening control over the movement of Russian diplomats in the country. "They need to lobby it somehow, motivate, come up with some kind of an information campaign," she said. "And in terms of informational work there are professionals there who know how to do it. Everything serves these goals."

"However, actually, a banal event in the life of an ordinary CIA employee was turned by our American colleagues into an assault of a Russian policeman on an innocent American diplomat. We have stated all the facts, and then everyone can draw his own conclusions," Zakharova said. The Washington Post reported on June 29 that a Russian police officer allegedly used force against an American diplomat. Zakharova said later that in fact, on the night to June 6, a taxi pulled up at the US Embassy in Moscow, and an unknown man in a hat drawn over his eyes jumped out of the car and rushed to the checkpoint. The policeman who was on duty there wanted to check the documents of the suspicious person, to make sure he did not threaten the embassy, however, instead of letting the officer see his ID, the man hit him with an elbow in the face, pushed him away and fled to the embassy," she added, saying that the Washington Post report "not only distorts the information, but openly contradicts the facts."